Abstract
Disease outbreaks motivate human groups to engage in sensemaking efforts to give meaning to the event. These sensemaking processes often involve narratives framing where a disease comes from, how it spreads, and how to prevent and cure infections. At least four generic narratives are typically used as symbolic resources make sense of disease outbreaks: A medical science narrative and three lay narratives, i.e., (1) infectious disease as divine punishment, (2) infectious disease as caused by actions of outgroups (3) infectious disease as caused by evil elites. The contributions to this Special Issue are discussed in relation to this narrative sensemaking perspective.
Highlights
All the studies except Malik et al (2021) ask participants to make sense of experimental stimuli in more or less narrative form; Malik et al, analyze news, which is per se a form of sensemaking (Wagner et al, 2002)
The most widespread is the institutionalized narrative of medical science, elaborated by scientists and propagated by educational, governmental and political institutions and the media
The studies are of high internal validity
Summary
All the studies except Malik et al (2021) ask participants to make sense of experimental stimuli in more or less narrative form; Malik et al, analyze news, which is per se a form of sensemaking (Wagner et al, 2002). I describe sensemaking narratives of infectious disease as a backdrop before commenting on the articles. The most widespread is the institutionalized narrative of medical science, elaborated by scientists (based on the germ theory of infectious disease) and propagated by educational, governmental and political institutions and the media.
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